4 - Systematic Biases in Network Perception

Summary

In Chapter 3, we predicted and found that the perceptions in people's minds concerning whether a target individual was a friend of a prominent person significantly affected the target individual's reputation concerning work performance in an organization (Kilduff and Krackhardt, 1994). The actual existence of friendship links, recognized by both parties in each link, had no significant effect on other people's perceptions of an individual's reputation as a high performer. This research showed that people's perceptions of relations helped to determine reputations, whereas the actual structure of relations had no effect.

In this chapter, we focus again on perceptions of the friendship network, this time investigating how perceptions are shaped by preexisting expectations. We chose the friendship network to study because this network affects important choices individuals make. We ask, under what circumstances are individuals' perceptions of the friendship network shaped by schemas concerning how people typically behave in the friendship role?

The role of friend is well understood in society, as indicated by the high level of agreement within societies concerning how friends should act in relation to each other (Argyle and Henderson, 1985: 92). People have access to a schema or strategy that specifies how individuals typically act in this role (see the discussions in DiMaggio, 1991; Swidler, 1986). Cognitive psychologists have described schemas as mental structures that enable people to anticipate the general features of recurring situations (Neisser, 1976: 51–78).